The present invention relates to a device for feeding and cutting strip labels.
The device according to the present invention may be used to advantage, though not exclusively, on cigarette packing machines, for feeding a wrapping line with labels consisting, for example, of revenue stamps or sealing strips. Cigarette packing machines are known to employ strips of labels on which each label is joined to the adjacent labels along lines at least a centre portion of which consists of a slit. Each strip is normally wound into a coil and connected to a feeding and cutting device, which reels the strip off the said coil and feeds it, in step-by-step manner, towards a cutting position where the end label on the strip is separated from the following labels by means of a device normally consisting of a fixed and a mobile blade.
On known feeding and cutting devices, the uncut label is usually fed towards the cutting position by parting the edges of the said slit between two adjacent labels, and by positively engaging one of the parted edges by means of a slide mechanism, which pushes the uncut label onto a stop element which engages and arrests the label in the cutting position.
A major drawback on known feeding devices of the aforementioned type is that they fail to provide for precise positioning of the label in the cutting position, and/or for preventing damage to the label over a given cutting rate, which has been amply exceeded on modern cigarette packing machines designed to produce over ten packets a second.
To be more precise, as each uncut label is fed forward by the said slide mechanism so as to engage the said stop element, the impact between the said stop element and the edge of the label may result in damage to the label and/or in the entire strip being jolted backwards when the cutting rate and, therefore, the operating speed of the said slide mechanism, for a given label length, exceeds the said given rate.